Kepler(s) on France 2 : what is the series with Marc Lavoine and Sofia Essaïdi ?

France 2 launches tomorrow night the police series “Kepler(s)”, led by Marc Lavoine, en flic, schizophrenic, and by Sofia Essaïdi. That is what polar directed by Frédéric Schoendoerffer (“Mobsters”), on the background of the migrants and of the Calais jungle ? Jean-philippe BALTEL / EVS / FTV what is it about ? Following a police operation which went wrong, Samuel Kepler, a cop at the mental health shaky, is put in the green at the police station in Calais, where he tries to rebuild with his wife Anne and their daughter Marion. Assigned to a simple desk job, Kepler, think to keep his demons at a distance. But a death will remodel. The body of a young girl was found on the grounds of the former Calais jungle… the one of Lucie Martel, a high school girl who reminds him of his own daughter. Driven by his hierarchy, Kepler is going to have to do what he feared most : to investigate new and back on the field, in the midst of the suffering of migrants. To find the killer, he must team up with Alice Haddad, a young cop local who will be his guide and the witness is worried about his fall. Every Monday at 21h on France 2 on march 4, what it looks like ? Kepler(s) – season 1 trailer VF This is with that ? In front of the camera by Frédéric Schoendoerffer, who had already tried the series on season 1 of Braquo 2009, Marc Lavoine, that we had not reviewed in a recurring role since Crossing Lines five years ago, embodies Samuel Kepler, a cop on the road to perdition that suffers from a dissociation of the personality and must fight daily to prevent that his “passenger”, his other “him”, not take over. To his side, Sofia Essaïdi, seen recently in Unsuspected on TF1, portrays Alice Hadad, a partner in the well-tempered character of Kepler, who, in the course of the very complex case on which they investigate, will gradually reveal its flaws, which probably explain in part his behavior intransigent vis-à-vis the surrounding world, and particularly migrants. A role which shows the path taken by the actress from the show Star Academy, which was revealed in 2003. The rest of the distribution of Kepler(s), solid in the whole, includes Isabelle Renauld, Elodie Navarre, Serge Riaboukine, Cyril Lecomte, or even Stéphan Guérin-Tillié, in the skin of Antoine Metzger, the pk of the hero. It’s worth the look ? From its opening scene, in which Samuel Kepler, assailed by his multiple personalities, crosses the boundary in the course of a police intervention, Kepler(s) promises to offer us something different, away from the police series ultra formatted that it has too used to see on French television. A nice bet for France 2 and for screenwriters Jean-Yves Arnaud and Yoann Legave, therefore, have chosen to make this anti-hero non-standard the central figure of this series is dark, cold, and violent, in which there is necessarily, all things considered, a little something Split to the sauce, polar tv. In the course of its six episodes, Kepler(s), which was originally supposed to be called Charon (with reference to the nocher of the Underworld of Greek mythology, mentioned several times in the series), weaves a story that keeps in suspense, as much of the side of the police story that multiplies twists and turns, the moments of shock, and questions, on the more personal struggle of Kepler against his inner demons. Because it is true that throughout the first episode, quite slow, which really serves to lay the foundations of the story, a question comes inevitably to the viewer : when the “passengers” who live in the spirit of the hero will they eventually take over, thus possibly vasciller the investigation ? Jean-philippe BALTEL / EVS / FTV Unfortunately, despite a backstory that pushes us to wait for its resolution, the series suffers from an accumulation of shots that we would have liked. Indeed, if the framework of Calais and its jungles provide an atmosphere of welcome, migrants, trafficking, smuggling, or even the crimes committed by obscure militias xenophobic far-right does not seem to be present, in the background, to serve as a tide of violence and murky bit subtle. But it is ultimately mostly on the side of the sequences taking place inside the head of Samuel Kepler, that the rub. Frédéric Schoendoerffer (Agents secrets, Mobsters, The Convoy), the completion of which licked and full of tension, and yet it is one of the strong points of the series, has made the choice to show on the screen the inner struggle of Kepler, through scenes in which the “passengers”, embodied by different actors, attempt to pass the bars of a prison to join their host, and thus leave their state of sleep. The result, somewhat laughable, who in the end for that push us to say that is not Shyamalan who wants to and a little more mystery, or, in any case, nuances, would have further served the purpose. But despite these missteps, the viewers of France 2 fond of crime fiction should find their account in this new series that dares originality and is served by a pretty distribution. Marc Lavoine and Sofia Esaïdi in the lead, who form a duo of cops out of the ordinary convincing, that have both their particularity and their demons, and complement each other well despite their differences. Thus recalling moments, Broadchurch, or Tunnel. These are no doubt the ones who carry the series, and if they struggle sometimes as they can with what they have to play – we obviously think of Marc Lavoine during the famous scenes with the passengers to Kepler -, they do generally very well. As it is said that a season 2, or in any case a recurrence of these two characters on other investigations, would not be a bad idea, even if everything suggests that Kepler(s) is and will remain a mini-series, curly.